Bucharest's stray dogs facing death

The thousands of stray dogs that prowl the streets of Romania's capital Bucharest are facing death after a pack of strays mauled a four-year-old boy to death.

Stray dogs lay in the sun in Bucharest.Photo: DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP

By Matthew Day, Warsaw

4:04PM BST 06 Sep 2013

Ionut Anghel was savaged by five of Bucharest's estimated population of 64,000 dogs as he played with his elder brother in a city centre park. A doctor that examined the boy's corpse said he had suffered "hundreds of bites" and was "really devoured".

The death looks as if it could prompt authorities to deal with the unwanted pests once and for all.

In a televised address to the country Traian Basescu, the Romanian president, called for emergency legislation allowing for the cull of thousands of stray dogs. Despite being the owner of three former strays, Mr Basescu said "dogs should not be put above humans" as he asked the government to change the law, which currently allows only the killing of sick stray dogs.

At the same time Bucharest council announced that it would hold a referendum, probably early next month, asking residents whether they were for or against the killing of strays caught within the city's limits that have failed to be adopted after seven days.

Bucharest's dog population has long been a scourge of the city. Last year alone there were 16,000 incidents of dog bites in the Romanian capital, and in the first six months of 2013 saw over 6,000 dog attacks. Residents and visitors have to get used to the sometimes unnerving situation of being followed by dogs hoping to get some food.

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The huge number of strays is a legacy of Communism when people, forced out of their houses and into small high-rise flats by the communist government, abandoned their dogs.

But calls for a canine cull have been opposed by animal rights groups. They have condemned talk of a mass slaughter as barbaric, and have proposed a sterilisation campaign as an alternative solution to the dog problem.

Mr Basescu rejected this saying "sterilisation is no longer a solution" as "does not remove dogs' fangs"